Quiz 48

Question 1

The massive 20-novel sequence by Emile Zola set during the French Second Empire, which includes such works as Nana, La Bete Humaine and Germinal, is often known collectively by the names of the two families whose stories it traces. What are those names?

Answer 1

Rougon-Macquart

Question 2

What was the name of the British cleric, a reader of Geology at Oxford University from 1818, who identified the fossil bones of a prehistoric reptile that he called the Magalosaurus, the first dinosaur to be given a scientific name?

Answer 2

William Buckland

Question 3

In the periodic table, which hard, brittle, pinkish-white metal has, at 83, the highest atomic number of all the stable elements?

Answer 3

Bismuth

Question 4

The contraction Interpol actually only utilises two of the four words in the organisation’s name in English. What is the full four word name?

Answer 4

International Criminal Police Organisation

Question 5

Which powerful poison is extracted from the seeds of the castor oil plant?

Answer 5

Ricin

Question 6

When signing a letter in place of someone else, it is common to place the abbreviation pp before one’s signature. What do the letters pp stand for?

Answer 6

Per procuratiomen

Question 7

Although derived from different sources, which term for an argument is the same as that for a short heavy arrow shot from a crossbow or arbalest?

Answer 7

Quarrel

Question 8

Two pop groups, both with their origins in Sheffield, released hit albums with the title Hysteria within three years of each other in the 1980s. Which two?

Answer 8

Human League, Def Leppard

Question 9

The word Eureka, which Archimedes reputedly exclaimed on lighting upon a hydrostatic method of assessing the amount of alloy in the crown of the King of Syracuse, was adopted as the motto of which US state?

Answer 9

California

Question 10

Named after the 5th Marquis of Salisbury, the Salisbury doctrine or convention relates to what policy regarding the House of Lords?

Answer 10

Peers do not impede manifesto legislation

Question 11

Which controversial novel of 1928 opens with the line: “Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically”?

Answer 11

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Question 12

Which of the wives of Henry VIII died last, surviving until 1557?

Answer 12

Anne of Cleves

Question 13

The children’s novels Dick Willoughby and The Otterbury Incident are the work of which British Poet Laureate?

Answer 13

Cecil Day Lewis

Question 14

Taking its oxygen supply directly from the air, which part of the body uniquely has no blood supply?

Answer 14

Cornea

Question 15

An exhibition of reclining nudes, judged obscene by Parisian police officials and shut down in 1917, was the work of which Italian painter?

Answer 15

Amadeo Modigliani

Question 16

Which film of 1950 completes the director John Ford’s so-called Cavalry trilogy of westerns, the first two being Fort Apache in 1946 and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon in 1949?

Answer 16

Rio Grande

Question 17

The Neandertal, the German valley in which skeletal remains discovered in 1856 proved to be those of a palaeolithic hominid, is crossed by which river?

Answer 17

Dussel

Question 18

Which colonial soft coral, with the scientific name Alcyonium digitatum, gets its popular name from its fleshy pink appearance?

Answer 18

Dead Men’s Fingers

Question 19

Terry, who starred as Toto in the film The Wizard of Oz, was what breed of dog?

Answer 19

Cairn terrier

Question 20

Computers routinely use USB connections and devices. What do the letters USB stand for?

Answer 20

Universal Serial Bus

Question 21

The line “Play up! Play up! And play the game” comes from a poem called Vitai lampada by which Victorian poet?

Answer 21

Henry Newbolt

Question 22

The novelist William Golding, the 19th century world heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons and the chemist and inventor Humphrey Davy were all born in which English county?

Answer 22

Cornwall

Question 23

Which British artist was a founding father of the Pop Art movement and became famous for canvases incorporating collage, such as My Marilyn and Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

Answer 23

Richard Hamilton

Question 24

Scofula, which affects the lymph glands, especially in the neck, and was once known as the King’s Evil, is a form of which chronic infectious disease?

Answer 24

Tuberculosis

Question 25

What name is given to that region of the atmosphere in contact with the Earth’s surface and which contains most of the clouds?

Answer 25

Troposphere

Question 26

A salt lake in Western Australian called Dumbleyung became the centre of some attention on New Year’s Eve in 1964 - for what particular reason?

Answer 26

Donald Campbell’s water speed record

Question 27

Which city in the former East Germany was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953 to 1990?

Answer 27

Chemnitz

Question 28

Which British physical chemist, who pioneered research into atomic disintegration, also coined the term isotope?

Answer 28

Frederick Soddy

Question 29

The annual rise in stream levels in cold climates brought about by melting snow is known by what name?

Answer 29

Freshet

Question 30

The Venetian Renaissance painter Gorgio da Castelfranco is better known by which one-word name?

Answer 30

Giorgione

Question 31

Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore achieved a notable first in 2009, by becoming the first female recruit to which well-known outfit in the British Armed Forces?

Answer 31

Red Arrows

Question 32

Which famous sporting venue stands on the site of a failed venture to build a London rival to the Eiffel Tower?

Answer 32

Wembley

Question 33

Can you name the two ships in which Captain Robert Scott sailed to the Antarctic for his expeditions there, the first taking place between 1901 and 1904, and the second, fatal, one from 1910 to 1912?

Answer 33

Discovery and Terra Nova

Question 34

What term did the French theorist, actor and director Antonin Artaud coin to refer to his idea that theatre should communicate to its audience at a visceral level like a plague, rather than through words?

Answer 34

Theatre of Cruelty

Question 35

Cockaigne, the name of an imaginary country of luxury and idleness, was sometimes given to which real city, in a play on words on the nickname of its inhabitants?

Answer 35

London

Question 36

When Lord Salisbury left office as British Prime Minister in 1902, he was succeeded by his nephew. Who was that?

Answer 36

Arthur Balfour

Question 37

Which wild plant, also called keck, that grows abundantly and spectacularly in British hedgerows in spring, has the Latin name Anthriscus sylvestris?

Answer 37

Cow parsley

Question 38

In the Bible, who was the husband of Ruth, and became the great grandfather of King David?

Answer 38

Boaz

Question 39

Which writer’s skit on Hamlet, entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, was given its first professional performance in 1892?

Answer 39

WS Gilbert

Question 40

Claiming to be the chief of an Abyssinian tribe, under what name did racing tipster Peter Mackay become better known on British racecourses in the inter-war years?

Answer 40

Ras Prince Monolulu